


Time Waits

by All_Our_Sweetest_Hours



Category: The Vampire Diaries (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Caroline Is Not A Mother, F/M, Klaroline, One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-16
Updated: 2020-09-16
Packaged: 2021-03-07 17:27:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,864
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26501383
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/All_Our_Sweetest_Hours/pseuds/All_Our_Sweetest_Hours
Summary: Time waits for nobody but then vampires have always played by different rules-A Klaroline one shot exploring a promise that Klaus once made-
Relationships: Caroline Forbes/Klaus Mikaelson
Comments: 2
Kudos: 41





	Time Waits

**Author's Note:**

> I've turned on comments moderation for this one. I appreciate feedback; complimentary or constructive but if all you're going to do is leave a foul mouthed comment about how much you don't like either character in this story, don't bother wasting your time.

“Let’s go to Seville.”

It has been ten years and he never stops. 

“Go home and raise your child,” she snaps, heels clicking on Venetian cobblestone. 

She doesn’t turn to see his reaction. 

She is gone by morning.

//

Her stay in Tuscany is as cliché as expected. 

She drinks aged wine and takes pictures of sunsets. She wears flowing dresses and flowery headbands. 

And when she rounds the corner of the local market and finds a group of young women; fresh out of high school, dressed the same, taking the same pictures and drinking the same wine, she stops and thinks herself a fool. 

//

“Go to Dominique’s Bakery,” he tells her. “There are no crepes in the world as divine.” 

She rolls her eyes and sighs, “Don’t you ever get tired of stalking me?” 

His cheeks dimple. “Stalking? Not at all. I’m simply keeping a promise I once made.” 

“Once upon a time,” she says sharply. 

He smiles instead. A pause holds between them until he says, “There’s still a place for you, Caroline...with me.” 

It’s a whisper, as though he’s half afraid that she might hear him and reject the idea out flat. Should she call him a liar and give way to the bitterness of him being a father; surrounded by family and her being an infertile orphan? Wail about how he doesn't deserve it and she deserves so much more? 

She decides to say nothing besides, “I didn’t like Rome and I’m hating Paris. Go away!” 

With a sad smile he leaves. 

//

She fares better in Tokyo. Much better than she thought she would. On the very first night, she gets practically dragged out to a bar by a gaggle of Japanese youths and she delights in the cliché of it all. 

There’s karaoke. 

And by the sixteenth shot, Tokyo is her favourite place in the world. 

“Ooh, baby I love your way!” she sings and when she looks towards the bar, she finds her favourite buzz kill; watching her performance and sipping something pink and decorative. 

He holds up his glass in salute. 

Caroline is suddenly sober. 

“Didn’t take you as a Cosmopolitan kinda guy” she says with only a half sneer as she finally gives in and takes the seat beside him. Better to get this over with now so she can enjoy the rest of her night. 

He simply shrugs. “I was in the mood for something a little more festive. Cheerful,” he tacks on with a pointed look. It’s been 10 years and he still looks at her the same way. 

She wants to claw his eyes out. She suddenly feels so weary. 

“What are you doing here, Klaus?” 

“You never return my calls.”

Caroline chokes on a laugh. “Yeah, because I don’t want to talk to you and I definitely don’t want to play step-mommy to your kid, so go away already.” 

Klaus sighs. “It’s not a competition, Caroline. It never has been.” 

The fight leaves her. She blinks twice, slow. “Look, I know it’s not. But it’s not what I want either. Being frozen in time can suck enough as it is. One of the perks is that if we’re lucky we find somebody else like us and we get the forever that everybody else wants. I want that. I want to be somebody’s forever.” 

“You already are, Caroline.” 

The truth tastes bitter.

“There is room in my heart for both of you, Caroline.” He replies. “Hope is already a teenager. In another 10 years she may have her own home, her own family, perhaps her own children. You’re not the only one who wants forever. I love my daughter more than life itself but my world does not solely revolve around her. It mustn’t. I learnt that lesson long ago, how damaging that can be. Whatever happens with us, I will not spoil my daughter through love.” 

Caroline swallows the rest of her drink, gulps the liquid more loudly than she needs to. There are words that are threatening to leap straight from her heart and into her throat. She swallows those down too but they force their way back up like bile. 

She suddenly thinks of Tyler, how happy they were once, how young, how fragile against a wrecking ball like Klaus. She thinks of Tyler because being alone and travelling the world makes you think. Caroline has shed more tears, mulled over more ‘maybes’ and regretted more mistakes and lost loves than she ever has in her life.

Tyler was sturdy and so full of possibilities. She remembers being young, being in love. It’s easy to forget that they were probably always destined to be a little too different to work. 

Klaus steadies his glass against the bar and sighs. “We don’t have to return to New Orleans yet. We can work something out. I’ll do whatever it takes to make it easier for you.” 

After a long pause, Caroline shakes her head and strengthens her resolve. He has something for him, she has nothing for her besides snapshots of Paris and Rome. 

“You should be with your family,”

Then she leaves.

//

Seven more years pass by. Caroline beams through the Boston rain as she and her fellow graduates take pictures of one another. They are clad in the crimson and black of Harvard University, too excited and exhausted to notice much of the world around them. 

Then everybody filters off to find friends and family and Caroline is left feeling momentarily reflective and more than a little lonely. Her family are long gone. Her friends are in different cities, living lives that she has no real part of. She clutches her diploma to her chest and breathes deeply, fingers running over the embossment on her current proof of life. 

She achieved, she lived. Her name is down on paper. 

“Congratulations, sweetheart.” 

She turns swiftly in surprise, gown twirling around her ankles. He is dressed in a suit and tie, curls gelled back. Her cheek tingles as she recalls her high school graduation. 

“What are you doing here?” She asks, on a breath. She should be used to this by now but it’s been longer than usual. 

“Well, not beheading a bunch of murderous witches, unfortunately,” he says with a smirk. 

“Yeah, well, wouldn’t you know, the world is a lot less dangerous outside of Mystic Falls.” 

He laughs at that. “It truly is. So, a law graduate, hmm?” 

Caroline simply nods, unable to gauge just where he might take this conversation. 

Klaus tries to smile innocently but the dimples always give him a sense of mischief anyway. “You know, there’s an opening at a firm in New Orleans, love?” 

Caroline allows herself to laugh, comforted by the fact that he never changes. “There’s also one in Chicago, three in New York and two in London.” She teases, even if she can feel her resolve weaken. For the first time in a while, it feels like there is the possibility of something much more in front of her. 

The mischief remains on his face. Caroline isn’t sure he could lose it if he tried. When she was younger and more inclined towards romantic clichés, she used to think of Klaus as a devil with the face of an angel but now that face is too familiar, and she is far too old, for such childish notions. 

He is a man, she is a woman and they are both human at heart. It really is that simple. 

“You know, you’re kind of a hypocrite really. All your lectures about how I needed to get away from small town Mystic Falls and see the world, and there you are, still in New Orleans after all these years.” 

Klaus shrugs and if his smile weakens, it doesn’t fade. “Well, I’ve already seen the world a hundred times over, love, but I could be persuaded to take another go around.”

There’s a weight in his gaze as he tentatively takes her hand “Provided the company is right, of course.” When she doesn’t pull back he runs his fingertips over her knuckles. “I do have a promise to keep after all.” 

Caroline glances down at their joined hands before returning her gaze to his. “Well considering that half the places you recommended were a bust, maybe I should take YOU this time.” 

His grip tightens and she knows she’s surprised him by the barely audible gasp that he isn’t quite quick enough to smother. “It will work,” he says, once he catches his breath. “I prom--“ 

Caroline cuts him off with an upheld palm. “I don’t want promises. Or tourist traps. You said you’ve been around the world a hundred times over so I want you to show me the good stuff; the stuff that nobody else knows about. The stuff that nobody else thinks twice about.”

Klaus drops his arm so their hands are casually linked together. His chin tips slightly as he thinks. “Well, if I recall correctly, there are a delightful set of caves deep in the jungles of Peru. Apparently, they are stuffed to the brim with long lost treasures but considerably dangerous.” 

“Dangerous?” Caroline asks, her interest piqued.

Klaus leans in closer. “Yes, dangerous; said to be haunted by spirits which make you act upon your deepest, darkest desires. Who knows what shenanigans we might get up to once there.” 

Caroline rolls her eyes as Klaus’s faux seriousness gives way to a grin. She matches it easily. 

“I might end up killing you.” She says. 

Her humour is further stoked by the fact that he looks somewhat thrilled by the notion. 

“Amongst other things,” he says with a wink. 

She drops his hand and links her arm through his. She tilts her head to the sky and sighs deeply. “If I’m going to have to put up with this kind of behaviour all the way to Peru, then these caves better be real and they better be stuffed with treasure.” 

Klaus shrugs and she feels the friction of his suit jacket through her gown. His body heat spreads through her like sunshine and she’s pretty sure the reason for that isn’t entirely scientific. She leans closer by a hair’s length and tries to hide an inhalation under a cough because she’s pretty sure he will be unbearable if he catches her smelling him. 

He smells like fire and paint; strong, oaky and of something that just warms her from the inside out. 

“If they’re not, then I’ll find you some caves that are.” He says, his voices breaking through her thoughts. “You’ll get your treasure.” 

They fall into silence as they walk away, arms still linked. Caroline breathes and listens to Klaus breathe beside her. Before long, he is regaling her with tales of Aztec warriors and the princesses they loved. 

She blinks lazily under the sun and burrows into his side a little closer with each step. As the sound of the crowd filters out and her fellow graduates fade from view, Caroline can’t help but remember what he once told her about adjusting her perception of time. 

She understands it now. They are vampires. Time waits for them. 

......  
end


End file.
